Impossible to change default language to English (UK) in Word on a Mac - The file NORMAL doesn't chaange

The steps you're taking seem to be correct.

Apparently, Maxine.C thinks you're referring to the UI language. The System Settings affect only the initial installation of Office. The Language for document text can then be changed to any which Mac Word supports. That doesn't affect the UI language, though.

What is the present Version Number & type of License for your Office software? Which specific release of macOS are you running it on?

Dear trickyt57-clive

Thanks for using Microsoft products and posting in the community.

I understand that your current situation is that you want to change the default language of Word on your Mac to English, but I wonder if you are concerned about your system language being changed, as you mentioned that your documents still appear in French even though they have been changed to English. I am not sure which language you are used to.

In your case, I have tested this and it is not possible to change the language of an Office application on a Mac alone, you need to change your system language before Word will change to what you want.

You can through the Settings---General---Language&Region---Drag the language you want to use to the top---Choose to log out of your current system account---Log in again that language change.

I have also found relevant links for you from which you can getmore detailed information:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-language-region-settings-on-mac-intl163/mac

Disclaimer: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate and safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it. 

If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding!

Have a nice day！

Best Regards, 

Maxine | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Dear trickyt57-clive

 

Thanks for using Microsoft products and posting in the community.

 

I understand that your current situation is that you want to change the default language of Word on your Mac to English, but I wonder if you are concerned about your system language being changed, as you mentioned that your documents still appear in French even though they have been changed to English. I am not sure which language you are used to.

In your case, I have tested this and it is not possible to change the language of an Office application on a Mac alone, you need to change your system language before Word will change to what you want.

You can through the Settings---General---Language&Region---Drag the language you want to use to the top---Choose to log out of your current system account---Log in again that language change.

I have also found relevant links for you from which you can getmore detailed information:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-language-region-settings-on-mac-intl163/mac

Disclaimer: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate and safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it. 

 

If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding!

Have a nice day！

 

Best Regards, 

 

Maxine | Microsoft Community Support Specialist 

Dear Maxine,

Thank you for the above. Thank you for your prompt response. Your suggested procedure (Changing region from Switzerland to the UK) worked. The default language of English could be chosen and remembered for future documents.

In my case, I could then change the System Settings Region back from UK to Switzerland, (losing any default language i.e French did not return). The is allowed me to select English as the document language and also to set the default to English.

Follow up and solution:

I changed my Language and Region from Switzerland to UK (in system settings), Then when I started word I got a message pop up reading as follows:

My default dictionary and spell-check language had indeed changed to English.

I then changed my Language and Region back to Switzerland (in System settings), and got the same pop-up message as above when I started Word.

Unfortunately, the default document language had changed to nothing at all. Not english, not French. Just nothing. So I repeated the process described in thenopening post:

Click on the tab "Tools" then "Language"

Mark Selected text as English (UK)

Click Default

I then get a message: "Microsoft Word. Do you want to change the default language to English (UK)? This change will affect all new documents based on the NORMAL template."

I click "Yes" then "OK".

And yes it worked! Now my default is English (UK).

Analysis:

I am guessing that my file Normal.dotm either didn't exist or could not be writted to at the time of the opening post. Changeing the System Settings ==>General==>Language and region to the UK and then changing it back again to Switzerland must have unlocked the NORMAL template so that it could be written to in the normal way.

Hi Bob Jones,

Thank you for the rapid reply.

I am running MacOS Sonoma 14.5

My version of Word is Microsoft Word for Mac, Version 16.85. Licence Microsoft 365 Subscription.

Further information. I can't change the default dictionary language to anything other than French. I tried to change it to German and Spanish which works fine for the current document, but reverts to French when I open a new document.

I also followed Maxine | Microsoft Community Support Specialist's advice above. I went to Settings---General---Language&Region--". I discovered that, as expected, English (UK) is set to the Primary Language. German is the second option. So nothing to change there. French isn't even one of the optionns in my prefered langauges.

My Region in settings is set to Switzerland.